Clinicopathological study of primary gastric lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES: To present a histopathologic and immunohistochemical analysis of primary gastric lymphomas that was reclassified according to the new World Health Organization classification of lymphoid neoplasms.

METHODS: We reviewed the morphological and immunohistochemical features of 28 patients with gastric lymphomas, diagnosed in the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital of Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria, during the period 1994-2003. Specimens were obtained from endoscopic and surgical biopsies. The immunohistochemical study was performed to analyze the immunophenotype of these lymphomas.

RESULTS: Patients were aged 17-71 years. There was a slight predominance of females (male to female ratio, 13:15). Seventeen of the patients had tumors mainly located in the gastric antrum. Histologically, the most common lymphoma was of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type (20 patients), also with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (7 patients), and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (one patient).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the different patterns of gastric lymphomas in Lattakia, Syria during a 10-year period in 28 Syrian patients, and reveals that the most primary gastric lymphomas are B-cell MALT lymphomas.